On December 20, 2025, Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), unveiled the toolkit for the 10th edition of the Swachh Survekshan (SS), recognized as the world's largest urban cleanliness survey. This event took place in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (MP).
The toolkit serves as the official assessment guideline issued by MoHUA. It aims to establish assessment parameters and provide a roadmap for cities participating in the survey.
The theme for SS 2025-26 is focused on enhancing community involvement with the tagline “Swachhata Ki Nayi Pehel- Badhayein Haath, Karein Safai Saath.” For the first time, citizens can provide feedback throughout the year using various digital platforms, including the Vote For My City application, MyGov App, Swachhata App, and Quick Response (QR) codes.
The scope of SS has broadened to include river towns across the nation, moving beyond previous limits that focused solely on Ganga towns. A unique assessment framework for coastal areas has also been introduced to tackle their specific sanitation and waste management challenges.
During the 45-day on-ground survey, over 3,000 trained field assessors will use Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled monitoring across all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). This assessment phase is expected to coincide with evaluations for Garbage Free Cities (GFC) and Open Defecation Free (ODF) certifications.
The introduction of the Swachh Shehar Jodi (SSJ) award aims to recognize the top-performing city pairs based on their collective performance across different population categories. In September 2025, MoHUA initiated this under the Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban (SBM-U). This initiative involves 72 mentor cities collaborating with 200 mentee cities through Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) to share best practices in urban waste management.
Since its launch under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the Swachh Survekshan has aimed to create a cleaner and open-defecation-free India by October 2, 2019. The initiative promotes healthy competition among cities, benchmarks sanitation performance, and enhances urban service delivery, thereby improving citizen satisfaction.
Q1. What is the Swachh Survekshan initiative?
Answer: Swachh Survekshan is an urban cleanliness survey launched in India to assess sanitation and waste management across cities, fostering competition for cleanliness and improving urban services.
Q2. Who released the toolkit for Swachh Survekshan 2025-26?
Answer: The toolkit was released by Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on December 20, 2025.
Q3. How can citizens participate in Swachh Survekshan 2025-26?
Answer: Citizens can provide feedback via digital platforms like the Vote For My City app, MyGov app, Swachhata app, and QR codes throughout the year.
Q4. What is the significance of the new award introduced in Swachh Survekshan 2025-26?
Answer: The Swachh Shehar Jodi (SSJ) award recognizes top-performing city pairs based on their combined performance, promoting collaboration in urban waste management.
Q5. When will the Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 survey be conducted?
Answer: The survey will take place over a 45-day period from February to March 2026, assessing cleanliness across all Urban Local Bodies.
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